UK Health & Beauty Marketers Investing in AI to Compliment, not Replace, Humans

Jan. 20, 2026

Fears of an AI jobpocalypse across the UK’s Health & Beauty marketing industry are so far unfounded, with marketers positively investing in AI to compliment - rather than replace - humans, research from performance marketing agency Impression has found.

Impression surveyed 1,000 UK marketing professionals in the Health & Beauty industry, from middle management to C-Level, at companies generating revenue ranging from under £1m to over £500m. The research found that:

AI driving positive performance: Despite fears that the arrival of AI Overviews and LLM-powered search would crush web traffic, 70% of Health & Beauty marketers have reported an increase in website traffic over the last year.

The report also found that brands are embracing AI in a wide range of ways in 2026: the largest portion of marketers said they would use it for ‘data analysis’ over the next 12 months, followed by ‘content creation’, and ‘personalisation’. Only 5% said they were unsure how they would leverage AI this year.

Health & Beauty needs a human touch: Impression’s report also found the uptake of AI hasn’t come at the cost of human influence and creativity. More than two-thirds (67.5%) of Health & Beauty brands are currently working with influencers, while an additional 20% say they intend to do so over the next twelve months.

Human creative talent also remains key. 63% of brands say they plan to grow their marketing teams in 2026, while 60% intend to increase investment in creative. Marketers also said finding the right talent and skills was also the second greatest challenge they will face this year.

Mikey Emery, Commercial Director at Impression said:

"AI isn't replacing roles entirely; it's elevating them by taking over execution tasks. Future success will rely on brands expertly harnessing AI and automation to reduce delivery costs and gain efficiency. This strategic use allows our faulty, old human brains to concentrate more on what the technology can’t replicate (yet): deep creativity and essential problem-solving. Deployed in the right way, the human marketer remains an indispensable powerhouse behind effective campaigns."

 

Budget growth predicted for 2026: Health & Beauty marketers were equally optimistic about revenue, budget and team growth in 2026: 67% expect to increase their budget in 2026, while 78% of marketers also expect to see revenue grow for their business over the next year.